In recent years, herbicide-resistant plants that are not affected by herbicides have been developed using genetic engineering techniques. A herbicide, phosphinothricin (PPT), is used as a nonselective herbicide, and the action mechanism thereof is as follows: PPT is absorbed in a plant body, and then PPT inhibits a glutamine synthase and causes accumulation of NH3 harmful to plant bodies, resulting in plant death.
Phosphinothricin acetyl transferase gene is known as a gene involved in a resistance to PPT, and gene products thereof are known to acetylate PPT by an enzymatic reaction, to thereby deactivate the herbicide effect.
Examples of PPT resistance gene include:                (1) a phosphinothricin acetyltransferase gene obtained from Streptomyces viridochromogenes (Patent Documents 1, 2, and 3, and Non-patent Document 1);        (2) a phosphinothricin acetyltransferase gene obtained from Streptomyces hygroscopicus (Non-patent Documents 2 and 3),        (3) a phosphinothricin acetyltransferase gene obtained from Actinomyces AB2253 strain (Patent Document 4);        (4) a phosphinothricin acetyltransferase gene obtained from Streptomyces coelicolor (Non-patent Document 4);        (5) a phosphinothricin acetyltransferase gene obtained from Escherichia coli (NCBI No. 7427901);        (6) a phosphinothricin acetyltransferase gene obtained from Agrobacterium tumefaciens (NCBI No. 17739287); and        (7) a phosphinothricin acetyltransferase gene obtained from Bacillus subtilis (NCBI No. 2636181).            Patent Document 1: JP 63-71183 A    Patent Document 2: JP 3062125 B    Patent Document 3: JP 9-107981 A    Patent Document 4: JP 2539901 B    Non-patent Document 1: “Gene”, 1988, vol. 63, pp. 65-74    Non-patent Document 2: “Molecular General Genetics”, 1986, vol. 205, pp. 42-50    Non-patent Document 3: “The EMBO Journal”, 1987, vol. 6, pp. 2519-2523    Non-patent Document 4: “Gene”, 1991, vol. 104, pp. 39-45